Honking In the Drive-Through

On Saturday morning my wife and I pulled into a local drive-through to grab a coffee before heading out to Limehouse Conservation Area to take some pictures.

(Yep, the new blog design is the result of that trip. Thank you, Monique, for snapping all those photos!)

I was amazed at the number of cars in line. There must have been 15 to 20 vehicles queuing up for their morning sustenance.

As we all inched forward, making slow but steady progress, some impatient driver near the back of the line decided to express his dismay, and perhaps try to quicken the pace, by honking his horn.

Which caused every single person ahead of him in the bumper-to-bumper lineup to:

become exceedingly cheerful

instantly pay for and receive their food and drink orders regardless of their position in line, then

vanish from sight.

NOT.

In fact, studies show that honking your horn in the drive-through does not cause all vehicles in front of you to magically receive their orders and disappear. Nor does it put you in friendly terms with any of the drive-through workers or patrons.

I’m not sure what possessed the guy to start honking his horn, or how he felt it might somehow speed up his progress. Part of me wondered why, if he was in such a hurry, he willingly joined a long line in the drive-through in the first place.

Another part of me wondered…what would happen if somebody snuck over and changed out that guy’s horn for, say, a whoopee cushion?

Dude, you’re going to be stuck in the drive-through for the next two-and-a-half minutes whether you like it or not. You can choose to get yourself and everyone around you wound up about it, or you can chill out. Maybe even inject a little levity.

If you could choose a different sound for that guy’s car horn, what would you make it?